Journal of Urban Management 9 (2020) 54–66

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Journal of Urban Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jum

Urban heat island intensity and its mitigation strategies in the fast-
T
growing urban area
Shweta Jaina, Srikanta Sannigrahia,∗, Somnath Sena, Sandeep Bhattb,
Suman Chakrabortic, Shahid Rahmata
a
Department of Architecture and Regional Planning, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal, 721302, India
b
Department of Geology & Geophysics, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal, 721302, India
c
Center for the Study of Regional Development (CSRD), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 110067, India

A R T IC LE I N F O ABS TRA CT

Keywords: Climate change especially rising temperature in the urban areas has become a major focus of
Land surface temperature attention worldwide because of the impacts having on human beings, biodiversity, and urban
Biodiversity ecosystem. Time series Landsat (TM and ETM+) satellite data products have been employed in
Urban heat island intensity this study to quantify the spatiotemporal Land Surface Temperature (LST) and Urban Heat Island
Remote sensing
(UHI) intensity for the year of 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, respectively. Biophysical char-
NDVI
acteristics of the city have been assessed through Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
Nagpur
(NDVI), Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI) and Normalized Difference Bareness Index
(NDBaI). The thermal behavior of the city varied distinctly. Seasonal LST and biophysical com-
position of the city has been analyzed to explore the temperature and greenness sensitivity across
the city region. The per capita electricity consumption of the city was positively correlated with
the surface LST for both summer and autumn/spring season. A relative brightness temperature
approach was employed to examine the nature of UHI across the city. It is evident from the
observation that the temperature is very high within the city core as well as certain surrounding
areas of the city, especially on the southern side. The temperature is comparatively lower on the
western side of the city than the eastern region. Certain peripheral regions, however, show a
higher temperature. This can be due to the development taking place in the outer areas of the city
and destruction of vegetation in the outlying parts of the city. Studied NDVI indicates that ve-
getation in the city is not balanced. It is high in the western part which maybe because of the
locations of different academic institutions, botanical gardens, seminary hills, agricultural land,
etc. Whereas, the eastern part is devoid of vegetation. Also, the areas in the periphery, especially
near the airport and Ambajhari Lake, has very low vegetation. The bareness is also high in the
peripheral regions. Result also shows that street-based heat intensity mitigation helps for urban
planning.

1. Introduction

Urbanization process accelerates rapidly in the recent era due to high population growth and excessive rural, urban migration
(United Nations, 1997; Wu, 2004). In India, the level of urbanization increased from 27.81% in 2001 to 31.16% in 2011 (Census of
India, 2011). Urbanization has led to distinct landscape changes, deteriorate the environmental condition which degrades the quality

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: srikanta.arp.iitkgp@gmail.com (S. Sannigrahi).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jum.2019.09.004
Received 23 February 2019; Received in revised form 25 August 2019; Accepted 20 September 2019
Available online 15 October 2019
2226-5856/ © 2020 Zhejiang University and Chinese Association of Urban Management. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open
access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/).
S. Jain, et al. Journal of Urban Management 9 (2020) 54–66

of life, pollute the ambient air and deteriorate the quality of water (Wu, 2004; Amiri, Weng, Alimohammadi, & Alavipanah, 2009;
Bokaie, Zarkesh, Arasteh, & Hosseini, 2016; Adeyeri, Akinsanola, & Ishola, 2017). The unprecedented changes of landscape and
human appropriation significantly dismantle the energy exchange between the earth surface and the atmosphere leads to increase the
urban ambient temperature that deviates from the surrounding non-urbanized areas (Buyantuyev & Wu, 2010). This phenomenon
called Urban Heat Island (UHI) that creates distinct thermal and microclimatic conditions in urban areas which affect the lives of the
inhabitants and the overall environment of the urban areas (Voogt & Oke, 2003). Meanwhile, heat waves in an urban area mainly
occurs in the island zones due to the high concentration of surface temperature (Chen, Zhao, Li, & Yin, 2006). This can be attributed
to the periods of abnormally hot weather creating uncomfortable conditions for the habitats, the severe impact of these heat waves
can lead to aggravation of health problems and even death (EPA 2008). In hot and dry climate zones, the combined impact of weather
and heatwaves have a considerable impact on the lives of the inhabitants (Tran et al., 2017). UHI in some Indian cities in recent
studies was found to be 3.3 °C in Chennai (Lilly & Devadas 2009), 8.2 °C in Delhi (Mohan and Kandya, 2015), 2.2°C in Guwahati
(Borbora & Das, 2014). The urban thermal environment is thus one of the major urban environmental issues leading to a need for
urban planning which focus on strategies for creating comfortable living conditions for the citizens.
Remote sensing approaches were found fruitful in several studies in estimating Land Surface Temperature (LST) and UHI phe-
nomenon over urban ecosystem (Asgarian, Amiri, & Sakieh, 2015; Guo, Wu, Xiao, & Chen, 2015; Mohan & Kandya, 2015; Perugini
et al., 2017; Li et al., 2014; El-Zeiny and Effat, 2017). The moderate resolution multispectral Landsat satellite products; i.e. Thematic
Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) thermal data of Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection
Radiometer (ASTER) have been used for estimating spatiotemporal LST (Amiri et al., 2009; Chun & Guldmann, 2014; Deng & Wu,
2013a, b; Wu, Jenerette, Buyantuyev, & Redman, 2011; Guo et al., 2015; Sannigrahi, Rahmat, Chakraborti, Bhatt, & Jha, 2017,
2018). Previous research suggested that thermal characteristics and landscape pattern associated with the LST are the results of
composition and configuration of land use and land cover (Buyantuyev & Wu, 2010; Chakraborti et al., 2019; Zhou, Huang, &
Cadenasso, 2011). Deng & Wu (2013a,b) suggested that vegetation abundance, impervious surface, and soil functions are the key
determinant in LST variation across the urban area. Therefore, these biophysical components are subject to seasonal variations and
assumed to be nonlinear with LST (Chen et al., 2006). Chen et al. (2006) found seasonal variations in landscape pattern metrics are
correlated with the LST. On the other hand, Buyantuyev and Wu (2010) studied linked between the LST and changes in land use and
land cover classes are associated with income, population density.
Mainly three types urban heat island can be categorized as canopy layer heat island (CLHI), boundary layer heat island (BLHI) and
surface urban heat island (SUHI) from different layers of urban atmosphere and surface properties (Voogt & Oke, 2003; Yuan and
Bauer, 2007). Most urban surfaces have a high thermal capacity. CLHI and BLHI are mainly associated with atmospheric heat islands,
whereas SUHI represented the surface thermal properties and known as land surface temperature (Yuan and Bauer, 2007). Land
surface temperature (LST) can be used for effective climate modelling, climate-sensitive urban planning and regional and global
energy balance as it is determined by the earth skin radiance and reflectance, ultimately controls the efficiency of heat exchange
between the earth and atmosphere (Chayapong & Dasananda, 2012; Gago, Roldan, Pacheco-Torres, & Ordóñez, 2013). The nighttime
temperature within the city increased due to heat transfer process as in the daytime (Arnfield, 2003).
The study is primarily aimed at analyzing the urban thermal environment of Nagpur and provide mitigation measures for the
thermal changes in the urban area through the study of urban heat island effects in Nagpur. Therefore, the objectives of the study are
(1) to study and understand the urban heat island, its causes, and impacts, (2) to analyze the relationship between urbanization
pattern and thermal changes and (3) to study the mitigation measures for thermal changes.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Study area

Nagpur city is located in Maharashtra state, between 21°45 N to 20°30 N and 78°15 E to.
79°45 E at the geographical centre of India. It is one of the major cities in central India and is one of the fastest-growing cities
influenced due to urbanization Katpatal, Kute, & Satapathy (2008); Kotharkar & Surawar (2015). With a population of 2.405 million,
this city is rapidly urbanizing, and this growth is bound to affect the urban environment. Nagpur has a hot and dry climate with dry
conditions prevailing for most of the year. The local climate is characterized by sharp temperature (ranges from 37°C- 45 °C in
April–May to 10 °C in December–January) and precipitation (ranges from 1000 mm to 1800 mm) difference. The city experiences
extreme summers with maximum temperature up to 44 °C. The phenomenon of heat waves is also prevalent in this region leading to
uncomfortable living conditions especially during summer when the city experiences harsh temperature effects. Urbanization may
further add up to the problems. Hence actions are required for reducing the temperature in this region for creating comfortable living
conditions for the citizens (Fig. 1).

2.2. Extracting land surface temperature and UHI from landsat image

The LST can be derived from the thermal bands of the Landsat TM, ETM+ and Landsat 8 satellite imagery products. The
methodology involves firstly the correction of different atmospheric noises have been minimized using the ENVI Fast Line-of-sight
Atmospheric Analysis of Hypercubes (FLAASH) atmospheric correction module. Secondly, the extraction of the land surface emis-
sivity (LSE) of the study area to derive LST. Thirdly, biophysical indicators were derived from the different band combinations (Amiri
et al., 2009; Fu & Weng, 2016; Li, Zhou, & Ouyang, 2013; Owen, Carlson, & Gillies, 1998).

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Fig. 1. Location of the study region.

Table 1
Description of the UHI intensity classes.
Relative brightness temperature (TR) UHI intensity class

−0.02–0.07 very weak heat island

0.07–0.10 weak heat island
0.10–0.15 moderate heat island
0.15–0.20 strong heat island
0.20–0.40 very strong heat island

Fig. 2. Distribution of (a) Annual dry bulb temperature (°C) and (b) annual relative humidity (%) in Nagpur city.

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Fig. 3. LST in Nagpur city in different seasons and years.

Table 2
Variation of mean LST (°C) among different LULC classes from 2000 to 2015.
LULC LST (°C)

Apr-00 Apr-10 Apr-15 Nov-00 Nov-10 Nov-15

Urban built-up 38.8 39.3 39.9 24.9 25.1 25.8

Bare ground 42.18 42 40 24.7 24.8 25.7
Sparse vegetation 40.99 40.7 39.5 23.8 23.9 25.1
Waterbodies 28.47 28 29.6 22 22.05 22.2
Vegetation 38.9 38.6 36.4 24.22 24.1 24.3

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Table 3
Changes of LST (°C) between 2000 and 2010, 2000 and 2015 and 2010 and 2015 in NMA.
LULC 2000–2010 2000–2015 2010–2015

Δ LULC (ha) Δ LST (°C) Δ LULC (ha) LULC Δ LULC (ha) Δ LST (°C)

Urban built-up 2737 0.2 5416 0.9 2679 0.7

Bare ground 10 0.1 32 1 22 0.9
Sparse vegetation −573 0.1 −2959 1.3 −2386 1.2
Waterbodies −1749 0.05 −1951 0.2 −202 0.15
Vegetation −425 −0.12 −538 0.08 −113 0.2

The emissivity of a surface is defined as the conversion of heat energy from an earthed object into above-surface radiation (Weng,
Lu, & Schubring, 2004; Sobrino, Jiménez-Muñoz, & Paolini, 2004; Zakšek & Oštir, 2012; Bechtel, Zakšek, & Hoshyaripour, 2012;
Weng & Fu, 2014; Snyder, Wan, Zhang, & Feng, 1998). Meteorological parameters included air temperature, precipitation, relative
humidity, wind speed, etc. were obtained from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). Also, air temperature from 46 locations
has been collected for validation purposes. Climate Consultant 5.3 software module has been used to visualize the meteorological
parameters. Study of different spots in and around the city was done to examine the various factors responsible for thermal changes in
urban areas. These spots were identified from the LST map through remote sensing. The areas were identified by temperature
difference, built form conditions, and greenery within site. Data of climatic parameters like temperature, humidity, wind speed in
these gathered with the help of device Lutron AH-4223, study of factors like land use, greenery within identified areas, data on typical
building materials and characteristics, etc. in the identified areas was gathered to understand the impact of these factors in heat
generation. 46 such spots were identified on the basis on built up and greenery in the locality.
The state-of-art of retrieval of LST has been taken from Sannigrahi et al. (2017).
The Spatio-temporal dynamics of LST has been quantified using Landsat ETM+ (band 61 and 62, 60 m) and L8 TIRS/OLI (band 10
and band 11, 100 m) thermal data obtain from https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov for 2002 and 2015. The pixel digital numbers (DN) was
transformed into atmospheric (TOA) radiance values as follows:
Lλ = Grescale. Qcal + Brescale (1)
where Lλ is the spectral radiance, Grescale and Brescale are the band-specific gain and bias factors, Qcal is the DN values of the thermal
band.
For Landsat 8:
Lλ = ML. Qcal + ∇L (2)
where ML is the radiance multiplicative scaling factor, ∇L is the radiance additive scaling factor (Tran et al., 2017).
The at-satellite radiance information was then converted to effective at satellite temperature as follows:
K2
Tb =
1n ((K1/ Lλ ) + 1) (3)
−2 −2
where K1 and K2 are the first (666.09 W m sr μm) and second (1282.7 W m sr μm) calibration constant for ETM + thermal band.
For Landsat 8, K1 and K2 are 774.89 (W m−2 sr μm) and 1321.08 K for band 10 and 480.89 (W m−2 sr μm) and 1201.14 K for band11,
respectively (Chander, Markham, & Helder, 2009; Sannigrahi et al., 2017).
Finally, LST was retrieved after converting the at-satellite brightness temperature (K) to surface temperature:
Tb
Ts = − 273.15
[1 + (λTb/ ρ)ln ε ] (4)
where Ts is at surface temperature (°C), λ is the wavelength of radiance.
ρ = h × (c / σ ) (5)
−34 8 −1
where ρ = Planck's constant (6.626 × 10 Js), c = velocity of light (2.998 × 10 m/s ), σ = Boltzmann constant
(1.38 × 10−23 J/K) (Weng et al., 2004).
εETM + L8 = 0.02644Pv + 0.96356 (6)
where Pv = fractional vegetation cover can be extracted as follows:
2
NDVI − NDVImin ⎤
Pv = ⎡
⎣ ⎥
⎢ NDVImax − NDVImin ⎦ (7)
Urban heat island intensity has been estimated using relative brightness temperature concept, proposed by Xu, Xie, and Li (2013)
as follows
TR = (TI – TA)/ TA (8)
where TR is the relative surface temperature, TI is the temperature (LST) observed within the city core and TA represents the

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Fig. 4. Distribution of (a) Ward areas and temperature, (b) Ward wise population and area distribution and (c) Ward wise population and LST.

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Fig. 5. UHI intensity (a) levels and (b) class in the NMA measured from satellite imagery.

temperature (LST) in the periphery region (Xu et al., 2013) (Table 1).
The biophysical composition and configuration are the key factors for addressing the thermal anomalies between rural-urban
continuums. Various biophysical indices, namely Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Built-up
Index (NDBI), Normalized Difference Bareness Index (NDBaI) were incorporated in this study to evaluate the individual and col-
lective effects of the surface green cover, urban density and bareness index on thermal response of a highly urban landscape (Sharma
et al., 2015).
NDVI = (NIR − R/NIR + R) (9)

NDBI = (MIR − NIR/ MIR + NIR) (10)

NDBaI = (SWIR − TIR/ SWIR + TIR) (11)

where R, NIR, SWIR, and TIR are the atmospherically corrected reflected band of red, near-infrared, shortwave infrared, and thermal
infrared bands of Landsat satellite imagery (Deng & Wu, 2012).

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Variation of air and land surface temperature across the city region

The study of climate parameters for Nagpur is shown in Fig. 2. The relative humidity is high from July to October from evening till
early morning. It ranges from 20% to 40% during the harsh summer months of April and May. Humidity is low during afternoon time
which makes the climate difficult to restrain. The dry bulb temperature is highest during April and May which goes beyond 38 °C. The
comfort zone ranges from 20 °C to 25 °C in this region. The average annual temperature is 27–28 °C. During winter season only, i.e.,
from November to February the temperature ranges between 20 - 25 °C. During the rest of the year, the temperature is always above
the comfort zone. The recorded low and high temperature is 7 °C and 44 °C (Fig. 2).
As urban heat island is a relative phenomenon, the mapping has been done for the entire Nagpur Metropolitan Area for un-
derstanding the difference between the rural and urban temperature. The maps were derived for different seasons in the same year for
the understanding of the thermal behavior of the city adequately (Fig. 3). The high surface temperatures are shown by dark brown
and gray colored areas, and cyan colored areas show the low surface temperature. This high LST cluster was mostly concentrated in
the Southern, Western, and Eastern peripheral region, respectively (Fig. 3). This implies that the temperature in the city is high, also
the temperature in certain areas especially in the southern side (i.e., near the airport and adjoining areas) is significantly high. The
temperature is low towards the northern part of the city which may be due to the presence of green cover in Pench national park and
active agricultural fields (Fig. 3). Thermal zones in the urban area can be identified from Fig. 3. As indicated in figure Fig. 3, the red-
purple color exhibits the highest temperature.
The temperature is comparatively lower on the western side of the city than the eastern parts. On the other hand, some peripheral
areas, however, shows a high-temperature (> 35 °C). This can be due to the development would have taken place in the peripheral

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Table 4
Summary statistics of the variation of estimated LST (°C) and biophysical indices in 2000, 2010 and 2015 in the study area.
UHI intensity class Area (ha) 2000 Area (ha) 2010 Area (ha) 2015

LST (°C) NDVI NDBaI NDBI LST (°C) NDVI NDBaI NDBI LST (°C) NDVI NDBaI NDBI

61
very weak heat island 1518 21.21 0.47 −0.44 0.06 2100 22.9 0.28 −0.46 −0.05 1800 23.8 0.22 −0.47 −0.16
weak heat island 6047 23.63 0.35 −0.32 0.2 9600 24.3 0.23 −0.35 0.22 4200 25.33 0.2 −0.42 0.23
moderate heat island 8008 24.19 0.32 −0.28 0.21 6100 24.9 0.17 −0.34 0.24 6500 26.2 0.17 −0.41 0.27
strong heat island 3727 24.99 0.31 −0.26 0.22 3000 25.4 0.15 −0.33 0.26 8200 27 0.14 −0.4 0.29
very strong heat island 978 25.98 0.24 −0.29 0.27 1600 26.08 0.18 −0.33 0.29 1800 28.1 0.13 −0.39 0.3
Journal of Urban Management 9 (2020) 54–66
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Fig. 6. (a) Showing the variations of electricity consumption of Nagpur city in different seasons and (b) area wise electricity consumption (KW
km−2) in various localities around the Nagpur city.

Table 5
Five different typologies of built-up and vegetation in various location of Nagpur city.
Typologies Location

Very dense built-up areas Mahal, Sadar, Momimpura, Tandapeth, Jaitala, New Futala, Somalwada, Vishwakarma Nagar, Dattawadi
Dense built-up areas Sitaburdi, Gandhibagh, Dhantoli, Gorewada, Manewada, Indora, Pardi, Hanuman nagar, Khapri
Sparsely built up areas Besa, Dhaba, Bahadura, VNIT campus, Seminary hills, Godhani, Bahadura
Moderate built-up dense areas with vegetation Ambhjhari, Shankar nagar, Old subedhar layout, Wanjari Nagar, Nari, Pratap nagar, Narendra nagar,
Rahate colony, Wardhman nagar
Moderate built-up dense areas without Nandanvan, Reshimbagh, Takli, Nildoh, Kapsi, Manish nagar, Dighori, Jaripatka, Mankapur, Trimurti
vegetation Nagar, Giripeth

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areas of the city and the destruction of vegetation in this region. The temporal dynamics of the estimated LST (°C) are discussed in
Table 2. The observed LST (°C) increased over urban built-up areas from 38.8 (°C) in April 2000 to 39.9 in April 2015, followed by
water bodies, 28.47 °C to 29.6 °C, respectively. Whereas, the LST (°C) has been decreased over bare ground (42.2 °C to 40 °C),
followed by sparse vegetation (40.99 °C to 39.5 °C) and vegetation cover (38.9 °C to 36.4 °C) from April 2000 to 2015. While, in
November, the estimated mean LST (°C) of all LULC was increased from 2000 to 2015 (Table 2). Whereas, the sensitivity between
LULC and LST (°C) changes was analyzed and are shown in Table 3. Land-use change, especially the accelerated encroachment of
urban area significantly affects the thermal behavior of an urban landscape (Feng, Zhao, Chen, & Wu, 2014; Feng et al., 2014). Ziaul
& Pal, 2019 study evaluated the Discomfort Index (DI) and Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) in the English Bazar Mu-
nicipality (India) and found that urban built-up region come across a partially uncomfortable - Cold (C) situation in winter, extremely
uncomfortable situation in summer and partially uncomfortable condition in post-monsoon season both for 2010 and 2016. The
findings of this study can be aligned with our observation. Gogoi et al. (2019) study on Eastern part of India had found that due to
LULC changes, the mean surface temperature of the region has increased by ~0.3 °C during 1981–2010, while the most significant
surface warming (~0.9 °C) happened during the last observation period (2001–2010). This study also found that 25–50% of this
warming is connected with the changes of LULC as the spatial pattern of LULC is perfectly associated with the estimated warming of
this region hence reflects a strong physical association between them. The other study such as Aithal, Chandan, and Nimish (2019),
Chandra, Sharma, and Dubey (2018), Mukherjee, Joshi, and Garg (2017), Sannigrahi et al., 2017, 2018, Chakraborti et al. (2019),
Singh, Kikon, and Verma (2017), Mahato and Pal (2019), Lakra and Sharma (2019), (Zhang, Odeh, & Han (2009)) etc. have con-
ducted the study of LULC change and its effect on LST and urban heating in different Indian cities and found a strong positive
association between the land conversion and increases of LST & UHI.
The mean land surface temperature is highest in the peripheral parts of the city (e.g., ward no. 115, 116, 121, 1, 2, 30) (Fig. 4).
Higher population density can lead to high urban development resulting in the formation of daytime and nighttime UHI. The number
of population is highest in Gandhibagh zone (wards 53 and 63). However, in the core city region (e.g. ward no 35, 36, 52, 55, 63, 66,
69, and 75), population density is very high reflecting a positive association between demographic characters of a city and LST
(Sannigrahi et al., 2017, 2018). Peripheral regions show the lowest population density. The eastern part of the city is more densely
populated as compared to the western part. It can be analyzed from the thermal map that the temperature is high in the eastern part
of the city as compared to western which corresponds to the finding from population density analysis (Fig. 4).
It was observed that the thermal changes are more intense during the winter season. Vegetation and water bodies exhibit less
temperature. The urban areas having a good proportion of vegetation mostly on the western part of the city shows lower temperature
as compared to the densely built-up areas in the eastern part of the city. The high temperature is observed along the transportation
corridor which is the ring road passing through the city. The peripheral areas which are mostly barren land for agriculture and
surrounding the water bodies exhibit high temperature in the city (Fig. 4). This may be attributed to the very high heat absorption
capacity of dark-colored basaltic rock types in these areas and also due to lack of vegetation in these regions (Bokaie et al., 2016). The
use of materials in urban structures, i.e. asphalt, flooring, and concrete dismantle the surface energy balance by reducing evapo-
transpiration and increase sensible heat in cities are one of the main reason of day and night-time UHI experienced in a city. This
could be a cause of higher temperatures in cities than outskirts (Bokaie et al., 2016). LULC results showed an increase in the urban
built by 35.5% from 2000 to 2010 and 25.6% from 2010 to 2015.Waterbody increased by 2.61% and 5.61% from 2000 to 2015 owing
to the increase in the rainfall and addition of Sakkardara water tank. The open land, as well as vegetation, has shown a decrease. The
decrease of the vegetation has mostly been in the peripheral areas.
Thus the UHI intensity is classified into five classes as very weak heat island, weak heat island, moderate, strong and very strong
heat island. The areas showing very strong heat island are indicated by white patches in Fig. 5, Table, 4. The central and part of the
peripheral areas (e.g., ward no 2, 3, 14, 28, 29, 30, 46, and 114) shows high temperature due to less green cover and high bare earth
objects reflect more energy than water bodies and green substances. The very high heat island observed over the region (wards 6, 27,
32, and 79) due to the presence of industries and transport nagar. Regions (e.g., wards 3, 38, 39, 61, 62, 63, 72, 80, 128, and 29) have
closely built urban spaces could be a reason for excess heat emission from these wards. The region comprised of ward 44 is seminary
hills, protected forest area, and ward of 86 having a large green protected area, which shows a weak heat island. Furthermore, water
bodies and vegetation object show very weak urban heat island intensity, observed throughout this research (Fig. 5).
The concentration of thermal heats in the urban environment resulting from the consumption of electricity. Therefore, this study
also ensemble the ward-wise electricity data and its relationship with the thermal environment (Fig. 6). It shows that in domestic
consumption, the pattern of electricity consumption has been increasing over the years(MSEDCL, Govt. of India). The highest con-
sumption is in the month of June when seasonal changes occur (Fig. 6a). The consumption is regularly increasing during the month of
May which is peak during summertime (Fig. 6b). Based on the study, 5 different typologies of built-up and vegetation of various
location in Nagpur city were categorized and are shown in Fig. S1, and Table 5.

3.2. Analysis of the biophysical parameters

The NDVI analysis in the metropolitan area shows that the vegetation is higher towards the northern part, whereas it reduces in
the southern and western part (Fig. S2). Relating this to the LST in the region, it can be observed that the temperature is lower in the
areas where vegetation is high (Fig. S2). Also, the NDVI changes can be seen in different seasons of the same year and also in different
years. The NDVI is higher in April 2015 than in April 2000 which may be owing to the higher amount of rainfall received in April
2015 as studied from the meteorological data. High temperature can also be attributed to the bareness as a bare ground will heat up
more than a vegetated ground (Bokaie et al., 2016). Fig. S2 shows that the vegetation in the city is not balanced. It is high in the

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western part which maybe because of the presence of various academic institutions, botanical gardens, seminary hills, PKDV agri-
cultural land, etc. On contary, the eastern part is devoid of vegetation. Also, the areas in the periphery, especially near the airport and
Ambajhari lake has very low vegetation. The bareness is also high in the peripheral regions (Fig. S2).

4.1. Policy implementation

It is analyzed that the areas on the periphery are having barren land exhibit a high temperature. This also consists of the
catchment area of Ambajhari and Gorewada Lake. The species of trees should be selected to attract biodiversity. The land capability
analysis suggests that the area surrounding these water bodies have a fairly good cultivable land. Also, the soil erodible condition is
high in these zones. Massive plantations should be done in these areas for temperature reduction as the impervious streets are highly
prone to heat absorptions (Fig. S3). The analysis shows that open space, barren land, in general, have a high LST value, but the area
can use for plantation, and children park. Therefore, active evaporation can reduce the extreme thermal characteristics of the city. On
the other ways, existing parks and playgrounds in the urban area cut the UHI effects. Our analysis suggests that relevant policy and
initiatives that encourage green urban development can help in reduction of the temperature in an urban area. Several places in
Nagpur need to be protected in terms of their degrading vegetation coverage, agricultural land loss in the peripheral areas of the city,
reducing green space in the city Centre (PKV land), hill areas-Seminary hills, Sitaburdi fort, Hazari Pahad areas, lake catchment areas-
Ambajhari, and Gorewada.
From the study of open spaces analysis, it could be seen that the open spaces in the city are lacking in some areas and there is a
scope for improvement in terms of vegetation in these spaces. These open spaces could be used as active evaporation areas if properly
planned. Urban greenery can take place in the existing parks and playgrounds in the municipal area and that too reduce urban
heating. The designated parks and playgrounds especially in areas like zone 9, areas like Budhhanagar, Vaishali Nagar, Siddhart
Nagar, Nalanda Nagar, Taware Colony, belonging to wards 38,37.22.8,9; zone 8 areas like Harihar nagar in ward 58, zone 3 parks
and gardens in ward 91, 126,103, zone 5 areas like Nandanvan, Nehru Nagar in ward 99,100,101 need attention in terms of in-
creasing green cover and green city planning.

Conclusion

This study compiled of remote sensing satellite imageries and field survey and found that the thermal changes and urban heat
island exist in Nagpur city. The urban thermal environment of Nagpur is an environmental issue leading to a need for a smart city
planning with a focus on strategies for reduction in temperature that create comfortable living conditions within the area. It had seen
from field survey as well as the satellite-derived land surface temperature that the factors such as less percentage of green area and
high built-up density are responsible for extensive urban heating. The vegetated areas regulate the temperatures anomalies between
the core city and outskirt. The temperature is comparatively lower on the western side of the city than the eastern parts. On the other
hand, some peripheral areas, however, shows a high-temperature (> 35 °C). This can be due to the development would have taken
place in the peripheral areas of the city and destruction of vegetation in this region. The observed LST (°C) increased over urban built-
up areas from 38.8 (°C) in April 2000 to 39.9 in April 2015, followed by water bodies, 28.47 °C to 29.6 °C, respectively. Whereas, the
LST (°C) has been decreased over bare ground (42.2 °C to 40 °C), followed by sparse vegetation (40.99 °C to 39.5 °C) and vegetation
cover (38.9 °C to 36.4 °C) from April 2000 to 2015. Water bodies and vegetation show very weak urban heat island intensity, which
implies that the availability of these factors is essential for mitigating the thermal effects. The peripheral areas are also vulnerable to
heating intensity, due to lack of green cover and increasing barren land. Although the population density is very less in these areas,
heat mitigation is the priority in these areas. Research result revealed from the expert opinion survey that green areas and land-
scaping should be prioritized as a mitigation measure for improving the thermal environment of Nagpur. Additionally, practice like
rainwater harvesting through mandatory is not thoroughly observed during this research period, for which strict laws must be made
for implementation of these policies. The proposed planning approaches and findings of this study could be helpful to the planners,
land administrators, and decision-makers for adopting relevant and useful land use plans, green city plan for mitigating the rising
temperature and thermal discomfort of the city.

Acknowledgment

SS and SC acknowledges UGC for providing continuous research fellowship for carrying out the research at Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT), Kharagpur (India). SJ would like to acknowledge MHRD for providing funding for the research being carried out at
the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur (India).

Appendix A. Supplementary data

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jum.2019.09.004.

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